We should all be pan-Orthodox. Nationalism and ethnocentrism are harmful to the proper development of the Church in the West.

I agree completely. I know exactly what you mean as I have seen and experienced it firsthand here in the U.S.

« Last Edit: June 21, 2012, 03:36:07 AM by Severian »

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"I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die [...] These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." -The Lord Jesus Christ

No longer active on OC.net. Please pray for me and forgive any harm I might have caused by my ignorance and malice. Pls email me, don't send PMs.

Eventually there should only be an Orthodox Church in/of Britain made up of all those who are Orthodox and are in Britain. It would draw from a wide range of cultural influences.

Father, isn't that essentially what the British Orthodox Church is, albeit under the jurisdictional supervision of Alexandria? Granted, other Brits and folks attend their various jurisdictional parishes, but in premise, isn't the BOC supposed to function like the OCA, as a British diocese so to speak?

stay blessed,habte selassie

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"Yet stand aloof from stupid questionings and geneologies and strifes and fightings about law, for they are without benefit and vain." Titus 3:10

The BOC is supposed to be a diocese especially working with non-Egyptians, but this can only be temporary (maybe hundreds of years temporary!).

There should be one Synod in the UK, the Coptic bishops should have fixed dioceses, and the other single bishop Churches should temporarily cover the whole country as the BOC does and as they presently do. This single Synod should work hard to establish a real sense of being one Church, among both clergy and laity, so that in due course the one Synod is able to establish a multi-cultural Church in the UK with one bishop in one area, and different ethnic backgrounds represented in each congregation, with varying balances and proportions.

A single Synod would be a start. I don't know how long the rest might take.

It seems like you are engaging in a form of selective cultural iconoclasm by rejecting Chinese art form and style for icons and demanding that Chinese adopt the Greek style of art to portray Christ and the Mother of God.

Our Divine Lord came for all men, not just the Jews. The Greek style icon is beautiful and inspiring, of course, and it has brought millions of souls to reflection on the mysteries and truths of Christianity, but it seems a bit harsh on the Chinese to deny them an artistic license in their depiction of the Holy Family.

He came for all men, but He didn't come as all men. How is it 'harsh' to the Chinese to tell them the fact that he was a Middle-Eastern Jew--not Chinese, not sub-saharan African, not a blonde Scandanavian, and not a white American. What is it about the actual person of Jesus Christ that you find so objectionable?

Everyone knows that Jesus was born in Kyiv (i.e. the south-central-western subsection of Kyiv previously known as Bethlehem) and spoke Ukrainian. If you don't believe this you are a Russian propagandist heretic...

Yes Father, but my UGCC friends say it was really a suburb of L'viv!

Of course, because, according to their claims, the original texts were interpolated and L'viv changed to Kyiv, as evidenced from the erase marks. Of course, their supposed "older texts" are also suspect, as "L'viv" is in Cyrillic and the rest of the text in Glagolithic